Peacock Room

En gennemgang af Smithsonian Institutions Peacock Room, indrettet af J.A.M. Whistler (1834-1903)

Set against the stunning backdrop of Sammezzano Castle, past meets present in the glorious Tuscan sun.Allegra O'Brien has it all: a beautiful family, a loving husband and a stunning west London home. But when she discovers her husband's infidelity, that world crashes down around her. With an ageing mother and two teenagers to support, Allegra seeks solace in the bosom of her Italian family. But it is the ramblings of her elderly grandpapa that awaken an interest in historic, interior architecture, and their legendary Mama Cosima. Inspired and invigorated, Allegra takes a trip to her grandpapa's birth village in Tuscany to learn more about her heritage. Whilst there, a dangerous encounter with a handsome Italian man throws her off course, but in the wake of her grandpapa's illness, Allegra makes an unexpected discovery and commits to the promise she made to solve a family mystery.

"When Allegra discovers her husband's infidelity. Her world crashes down around her. It is the ramblings of her elderly grandfather that awaken her interest in historic, interior architecture. On a trip to Florence she is visits her grandfather's birth village in Tuscany. Ready to meet someone new, Allegra ends up beguiled by a handsome Italian man and involved in a dangerous situation that becomes the catalyst for an unexpected discovery. Allegra returns to London only to be confronted with bad news. In the wake of her grandfather's demise she commits to the promise she gave him to solve a family mystery. Sammezzano Castle reveals the perfect historic backdrop to stimulate Allegra's love of architecture, to discover her true heritage and to indulge in a passionate love affair"--Back cover.

This book traces the intimate connections between Britain and China throughout the nineteenth century and argues for China's central impact on the modern British visual imagination through a study of gardens, blue and white willow plates, the opium den, and the photograph, and literary texts.

The nineteenth century was a period of science and imagery: when scientific theories and discoveries challenged longstanding boundaries between animal, plant, and human, and when art and visual culture produced new notions about the place of the human in the natural world. Just as scientists relied on graphic representation to conceptualize their ideas, artists moved seamlessly between scientific debate and creative expression to support or contradict popular scientific theories—such as Darwin’s theory of evolution and sexual selection—deliberately drawing on concepts in ways that allowed them to refute popular claims or disrupt conventional knowledges. Focusing on the close kinship between the arts and sciences during the Victorian period, the art historians contributing to this volume reveal the unique ways in which nineteenth-century British and American visual culture participated in making science, and in which science informed art at a crucial moment in the history of the development of the modern world. Together, they explore topics in geology, meteorology, medicine, anatomy, evolution, and zoology, as well as a range of media from photography to oil painting. They remind us that science and art are not tightly compartmentalized, separate influences. Rather, these are fields that share forms, manifest as waves, layers, lines, or geometries; that invest in the idea of the evolution of form; and that generate surprisingly kindred responses, such as pain, pleasure, empathy, and sympathy.

The author is generally recognized for his contributions to African American poetry, however, a large part of his poetry and prose is on other than African American themes. He achieves universality through his commitment, exploration, and dedication to his African American background, while emphasizing the importance in the commitment to the "belief in the fundamental oneness of all races, the essential oneness of mankind, to the vision of world unity". This is apparent in his poems as well as in the prose covered in this collection.